Navigating our diversity through healthy conflict is a design feature of our democracy.
However, rapid demographic shifts, divisive political rhetoric, and increasing ideological isolation mean we no longer see our differences as our strength.
In our increasingly multi-faith, multiracial society, learning how to move forward together across our vast differences is essential to getting anything done.
Our Guiding Principles
Pluralism is the practice of building a society where we’re able to live among, work with, and care about people who are different from us. This sounds simple, but is incredibly complex. It asks us to confront our deepest disagreements, make room for many values and ways of life without sacrificing people’s safety or dignity, and find a way to work productively with one another to build a future that has room for all of us.
New Pluralists believes that pluralism starts with these five Guiding Principles, and we use them internally to guide the choices we make, the relationships we build, and the stories we tell. These principles are a starting place to strengthen our democracy and create communities where everyone can thrive.
The five principles are:
Honor Human Dignity
We listen from a place of mutual respect and uphold the individual dignity, worth, and potential of every person.
Take Responsibility for Repair
We confront our past and reckon with our present in order to heal and strengthen our communities.
Widen the Circle
We expand our sense of who belongs and embrace our common humanity.
Find Strength in Difference
We design better solutions through our differences, not in spite of them.
Strive for Greater Sum
We challenge the zero-sum view that one group’s gain is another’s loss, and instead look to create win-win situations through curiosity, collaboration, and creativity.
Our Approach
We are connecting, aligning, and accelerating the work of leaders and organizations who care about improving trust, cooperation, and belonging in communities across the country.
We are a pooled fund and a field catalyst that makes change happen by investing resources, connecting people and ideas, strengthening how we understand and express pluralism, and inspiring many types of communities, people, institutions, and leaders to join us. We make change happen by:
- Investing resources: In the first three years, we invested $30M+ to strengthen the ecosystem and catalyze community-driven pluralism.
- Connecting people and ideas: We build trust and belonging among our partners, creating opportunities for leaders to elevate their work, work together on collective challenges, and share insights.
- Strengthening how we understand and express pluralism: We support research and practice collaborations and knowledge networks, so we can all better understand what pluralism is and how to put it into action.
- Inspiring many types of communities, people, institutions, and leaders to join us: We use our platform and leverage our resources to champion pluralism within philanthropy. Pluralism is essential to the issues and communities many funders care about—so let’s invest accordingly.